June 28 2023 - Unforgettable Firepit Moments

 

This first picture is mine - it is at Butchart Gardens taken in 2019.   And the picture below is a screen shot from an ad.  One can put the picture into Google and find similar images and sometimes the source.  The little white dots are the focal points you can search on.  Butchart Gardens does not come up as the source.  The Latitude Run Courtyard Casual Santa Fe Dark Gray 5 piece fire pit with ... is overlaid on a background of Butchart Gardens. As I scroll through Latitude Run furniture, it seems this is the way things are done.  Superimpose patio furniture in front of houses, scenic landscapes and so on.   It is found in front of all kinds of settings - Butchart, in front of an infinity pool overlooking an ocean, on a tropical patio, and so on.     Welcome to beautiful living! Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 14 - Festivals of Lights

 

Today's Bing picture is Butchart Gardens' Christmas display.  To me, this is  the triumph of the Solstice celebration of lights in the battle of the holiday season festivities. I like to think that the outdoor lighting displays equal the religious celebrations in our contemporary social realm.  While we won't be flying out to Victoria to see the greens lit up, Niagara Falls is an easy drive to see their display. And it includes the Falls themselves.  They boast 3 million lights, 75 displays for 1010 Nights of Twinkling Lights - from November 12 2022 to February 20 2023. There's also the fireworks display. "To celebrate the beauty and majesty of the winter season and mark the 40th anniversary of the Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights, a new illumination light show “Sparkling Winter Lights” has been produced for Niagara Falls Tourism by the Niagara Falls Illumination Board. The display features the subtle and sometimes harsh movements inspired by winter in the north. From gentle snowfalls to the aurora borealis gliding over snowy tundra, to blizzards and the frosted falls; winter’s spectacle is exciting and magical. The mighty American and Canadian Horseshoe Falls will come to life every evening with this tribute to the natural beauty all around us. The display is part of the regular nightly illumination of the Falls, with the five-minute lighting display playing through on the hour, at 6:00 pm, 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm each evening between November 12, 2022 and February 20, 2023." What better way to make this enjoyable than to include a chocolate trail.  The write-up offers a Velvet Kiss or a Dirty Snowman. Today's stars  were at the Niagara Falls display and then the Longwood display a few years ago. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 8 2020 - Satiscifer Expectations

How amazing that expectation is a word and not a movie, game, music group, or theme park.  Perhaps if I look up expectations - I'll find the Charles Dickens "Great Expectations" theme park. You will also find a hair salon, travel agency, education service, and more. What are some of our expectations 2021?  Whatever they are, the headlines tell us to lower them. Here is Stephanie Sarkis of Forbes with her advice: "In the “beforetime,” a new year meant new resolutions and a fresh start. Some years seemed newer than others.  Some years brought a greater change of behaviors or habits than in others. Most people can agree that 2020 was not the best year, to put it mildly. While vaccines are on the horizon (and you may even know people who have received them), we are still bringing Covid-19 into 2021." And what word does she introduce us to? Satiscifer - I am not sure I can pronounce it.  Here's what she says: The word “satiscifer” is a portmanteau of “satisfying” and sufficing.” It was created by Nobel Prize winner and economist Herbert A. Simon. Satiscifers are happy with “good enough,” while maximizers look for the best possible outcome. Satiscifers look at what options best suit their needs, while maximizers look for all the possible options. Do you try to get the best possible result out of a situation, or do you find an option that at least meets your minimum level of satisfaction? Consider that “good enough” decisions give you more time to focus on the things you value and care about. After yesterday's attempt to enjoy some virtual travel, I decided I would revisit our trip to Butchart Gardens in 2019.  I have updated the images to remove all the people.  And what would make me do that?  It is so simple visually - they are out of sync with the extraordinarily vibrance of the garden - in their clothes,  actions, body postures.   Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a beautiful young couple in Edwardian dress in these images, but I'll settle with "good enough" - which is extraordinary by itself.

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Would you hunt for treasure?

Do you know about the Forrest Fenn Hidden Treasure?   After becoming a pilot in the Air Force in the 1960s, Fenn regularly flew his plane to Pompeii to look for artifacts, of which he found plenty. Diagnosed with kidney cancer in the 1980s, Fenn decided to hide his most beloved artifacts and give everyone clues to find his treasure, which he estimates to hold  up to $5 million worth of gold, jewelry, and other valuable artifacts.   Read the story HERE.  This is an excerpt: "Fenn was living lavishly with his wife Peggy in Santa Fe in 1988 when he received a grim diagnosis; kidney cancer. When Fenn faced what he thought was the end of his life, he began thinking about what his legacy might be.  He purchased a 12th-century Romanesque 10 by 10-inch lockbox and secretly filled it with valuable artifacts including a copy of his autobiography. Fenn planned to haul the treasure into the mountains and die beside it, but he beat cancer and the treasure sat untouched in a vault in his home — until 2010. 22 years after receiving his cancer diagnosis, Forrest Fenn launched his treasure hunt to the world.  His self-published memoir, The thrill of the Chase, contains a roadmap within a 24-stanza poem, with nine clues.   In its eight-year existence, Fenn claims that over 300,000 people have attempted to find his hidden treasure and he receives 100 emails per day from hunters attempting to solicit clues as to the treasure’s location. No one has found the treasure, and a number deaths have been attributed to it.  There are special sites for accumulating information about the clues or for ruminating on the uselessness of the chase. And then there are references to him having dementia, so the location may be lost even to him. Two monks in the Japanese Garden at Butchart.  There was a group of them on a 'school outing'.

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Garden Etiquette # 3

The good garden etiquette guide now has three entries - I found this in my Butchart garden images.  It is the ceiling of one of the Japanese garden structures.  As there are approximately 1 million visitors a year, this could make for the accumulation of a lot of signatures.  Can you see the date at the bottom left?  I think it is 1976, and there's another further right that looks like 1963.  How many dates do you see? Butchart has the best recognized garden path in North America.  It is an amazing sight to experience, and everyone who steps to the edge of the rock quarry takes this signature view of the sunken rock quarry garden with the curving path leading into the distance.